You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you. (NIV)

If you just read that verse and said something like, Excuse me...what?? Know you're not alone! We are diving into a new series this week called A Deeper Life through Forgiveness, where we will be exploring what it looks like to walk in the forgiveness Christ made possible for us by his death on the cross, which we'll celebrate in a few weeks on Easter! And, just as the sober grief of Good Friday sometimes gets skipped over for the anticipation of Easter Sunday, so the concept of atonement often gets forgotten as we rush toward the glowing hope of forgiveness.  

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I've been there - I'll never forget one Good Friday service many years ago, when I flippantly asked a mentor friend why we have to act like we don't know Sunday's coming. And while I can't remember exactly how she said it, the effect was this: without facing the grief that was, we will never fully experience the hope that now is ours.  

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And this is the framework from which I hope you'll approach this week as we talk about atonement - what it is and why it matters to the story of God. So, let's start with the basics: what even is atonement?  

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We have a phrase that gets thrown around in our house a lot lately as my toddler learns how to ask for forgiveness: "Make it right." This is atonement: making it right! It's easy to miss this step, though. We understand the need to apologize, to repent, but sometimes we too quickly assume the leap from repentance to forgiveness. Maybe you too have struggled to forgive someone after just an apology. What's missing? Well, they've acknowledged they were wrong, but that doesn't necessarily make things right! Atonement is required for forgiveness to take place, and this is true in our relationship with God too.  

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But, praise God, with him, WE don't do the work of "making it right" each time we sin. Because of Jesus' once-and-for-all work on the cross, we are eternally covered by the blood of Jesus and made right with God. However, this was not always the case.

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Remember my mentor's wise words about Good Friday: Without facing the grief that was, we will never fully experience the hope that now is ours. If we want to walk into the deeper life Jesus has for us in how we extend forgiveness in our lives, we can't skip over atonement. When we look back and see what was missing before Christ, I believe our eyes will be opened anew to the profound grace of the cross. I believe our hearts will break in a new way when we realize the cost of our sin. And I believe we will feel a new burden for those living without the sweet covering of Jesus' sacrifice.  

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Friends, we need to pause and look back. We need to confront what was to fully grasp this wild, miraculous forgiveness we have in Jesus. I know I want to grasp Jesus' forgiveness in a more profound way in my own life... Do you?

To take this journey this week, we're digging into a book of the Bible you may have never ventured to, or maybe it derailed your "Bible in a year" reading plan. Leviticus can get a bad rap as drudgery that has little relevance for today, but as we dip our toes in some of it this week, consider this perspective I once heard: "Although these activities may not apply to me - the burnt offerings, the sacrifices, the rituals - the heart attitude does. Look for the heart postures God was addressing in the actions he was requiring."  

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We can do this with today's verse, too. "You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you." I encourage you to read the surrounding chapters; you'll find many activities that aren't prescriptive for us as Christians today. However, you may also start to notice that the heart conditions necessitating the activities of Leviticus have not changed that much at all.  

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Like the Israelites, we still need atonement, to "make it right" before a holy God. And just as God made a system for the Israelites to atone, so he has eternally atoned for us through Jesus' work on the cross so that we can live fully forgiven today. We are still in need of his grace, and I'm so thankful he is still a God who meets us right where we're at!

God Almighty, thank you for always making a way for us to come back into your arms. Would you open my eyes to the power of the cross in a new way this week? May understanding abound as I read and study Leviticus, that you would show me more of your heart through a text that can feel so foreign. Bring me to my knees before you at every turn. In Jesus' name, amen.